Frequently Asked Questions
01.
How will I know you are a fit for my horse and I?
This is the most important question of all. Am I fit for you and your horse(s)? Heart In Hand Equine Specialty specializes in equine bodywork, but has also taken a critical turn into holistic equine living and lifestyle. I support horse owners with questions that often aren't answered by surrounding professionals. I've taken a deep dive into unexplained and undiagnosed soundness issues that have been leaving the professional industry at a loss of answers. Now while it is never a definite or clear answer for us, I buckle down and just start focusing on providing your horse with my best possible tools to overcome whatever symptom we are dealing with. The three pronged approach of bodywork, nutrition and ground training has been the most potent combination so far - helping several horses and owner's when they were at the very last resort. While I am very well known for taking the "head scratching" cases, I also have a deep passion for supporting the everyday horse enthusiast. I love sharing philosophies, horsemanship, and experience with people who love horses and the holistic lifestyle. I enjoy working with horses in training programs, pleasure horses, retired horses, ill horses and our companion horses. I want to bring your horse(s) to a quality of life and point in their care regime that is simply maintenance so they can best perform for you - whatever that may look like. I want to help you feel confident in your horse's health and performance.
02.
What makes Heart In Hand Equine Specialty's bodywork different from other businesses?
Sometimes I use massage techniques during my sessions, however, if you're looking for relaxing "feel good" massage, I'm probably not the right fit. While I do utilize massage often, I strive to be very well versed in several different modalities - allowing a large selection of techniques for each individual horse but focus very strongly on the myofascial, neurological and musculoskeletal systems of the horse. There are several different treatment applications used during a session. When my work is complimented prior to a chiropractic session or full body massage: horse owners, myself, other therapists and have noted that the horse is able to integrate, hold and utilize the work of a chiropractor or massage therapist for much longer. This is often because I strive to get the nervous system online so the body is aware and can feel the changes that are coming, and open new or turn on existing neural pathways. I've also witnessed over the past couple years that the body may not need a chiropractic skeletal adjustment - but simply requires the environment in the soft tissue to change so that the body can realign and harmonize itself without force.
03.
When do I call you for bodywork following an acute incident?
Injuries and accidents are no fun at all. Depending on the severity, your horse's physical comfort and your experience with treating injuries - you should contact your vet about the incident and confirm that the horse is stable, has a safe pain control program and is comfortable. I do not replace a vet. If you feel that your horse's injury is an emergency, please contact your vet immediately. Initially after the injury/incident the body needs time to just heal. Over the last couple years, I have found 3-4 weeks after the initial accident is a good time frame to begin to integrate very gentle bodywork. However, it depends on the severity of your horse's injury as every horse and injury are different. One timeline and health program for one horse may not work for another.
04.
Where are you located and do you travel?
My business is based in a small town known as Merritt, BC, Canada. Merritt is situated right off one of the main highways connecting the lower mainland to the interior. It's also the central hub bridging the lower mainland to the interior. Roughly 1 hour from Kamloops, 1 hour from Kelowna, 2 hours to Vernon, 2 hours to Chilliwack and 3 hours from 100 Mile House. This makes travel easy, achievable and affordable to the Interior, Lower Mainland and the Cariboo. I frequent some locations regularly, and am accepting new locations as long as long as there is enough demand to cover my minimums.
05.
What if I book you for one service and you believe my horse and I will benefit from a different one or multiple?
This happens more frequently than I originally expected and that's okay! I think what is most important is to remember to keep an open mind and remain flexible in your horse's healing journey. Remember, as much as we believe the horse needs one thing - when we stop and listen to our horse's it often looks very different. I make these suggestions from an oath I promised the horse when I started this business - to put their needs first and communicate their needs in a way that owners can understand. Sometimes this looks like your horse needs a different service, your horse needs a completely different professional, or your horse requires multiple lifestyle changes before my work is most useful and effective. To support you guys, I have implemented the assessment fee on these visits and fuel charges may apply depending on the location of the appointment. This ensures you are not paying for the originally booked service. If I get there and feel your horse requires a different one of my services, you will only be charged for the service provided, not the service originally booked. Fuel charges will still apply.
06.
How do I prepare my horse for a bodywork session?
If you haven't already downloaded the free PDF from the services page, please CLICK HERE. Follow the information from "Session Preparation" to ensure you and your horse are ready for their bodywork session. Failure to follow preparation guidelines may result in compensated appointment time, unable to provide my services and subject a full service charge.
07.
What do I need for a nutrition consult?
The most important thing to bring to nutritional consults are details of your horse. I don't believe you can overshare their story. The more detail we have in the horse's history and symptom profile - the more potent the suggested program can be. There is never too much history disclosure and in fact, it is most likely to have withheld information. Include any medical events big or small, include programs tried in the past, include any vet visit, any symptom that was simply "out of character" and include to the best of your ability the timeline in which these events happened/began. In some situations, you may also need to include a virtual assessment attached to the nutritional intake form.
08.
Do I need to provide anything for ground training lessons?
I have the majority of any training tools I may need with me in my truck. My "tool box" has: a cavesson, 15ft rein, dressage whip, rope halter, 12ft lead line and a 20-30ft lunge line with a lunge whip. We discuss the use of these tools during your ground training session and if you have your own gear - I prefer to work with what you have. This allows the horse and you to learn the feel of the equipment you already have. I do recommend that your horse (especially under 4 years old) have some type of boot protection on their legs for their session. This protects them from stepping on themselves, additional support for shock absorption and protects the limbs from concussive forces if their hit one another. It is also important to be equipped to cool down your horse after their session. Oftentimes things get emotional and the horse's will sweat. Depending on the weather - make sure you have availability for a blanket in cool weather or access to hose horses off in the summer.
09.
What should I expect after your services?
Each horse is different and depending on the treatment being done that day, I should be able to give a clear, anticipated, thorough recommendation on site about how your individual horse may feel after.
For bodywork, a general rule I suggest is 3 days off from intense schooling and recommend trying an in-hand walk to help encourage gentle movement and circulation, then ground work and back to riding by day 3. This movement is crucial to the healing process for your horse! Horse's who have a chronic condition that has made them sore/unsound or who received a lot of deep body work I would recommend a customized program or the program recommended by your vet. Sometimes this is strict stall rest (also a prime time to have your bodyworker out!) so, post sessions truly are dependent on the horse.
Therapeutic nutrition programs are predictably unpredictable! The programs are customized to your horse's unique health profile and their current symptom list as well as their whole history. The program delivered to you via PDF is simply a starting point. It's common to tailor these suggested programs throughout the program is it's needed by the horse. Healing is never linear, we often see some impressive highs and lows before returning to a state of homeostasis. Most commonly I've seen horse's respond with detoxing symptoms that if/when they present I will support accordingly. It's important to maintain transparent communication through the process.
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Ground training is rarely a one-and-done experience. It is a true, deep investment with your horse and myself to maintain regular ground training lessons. This allows your horse to get a strong foundation, as well as the ability for me to teach you how to maintain the new "buttons" I've installed. While it is important to invest in multiple sessions, it's every more important to continue practising well after I'm gone. The consistency at which you are practising with your horse will strongly influence your results with each ground lesson.
10.
How often do I need to schedule appointments with you?
It is with great understanding all the way around that your horse is individual and the only one who truly knows how many sessions they need is your horse. My goal as a therapist is to address your concerns the best I can during our first session, however the one I listen to first is your horse and their body. Working with a tense and tight body will bring us no-where and despite our best wishes and effort - the horse sets the agenda! I've had horse's respond very well with only a couple of bodywork sessions and then schedule quarterly for maintenance, others who needed regular bodywork of months to a year before feeling comfortable enough to suggest a maintenance schedule - and others who just require monthly work. This goes with nutrition consults and follow-ups as well. My programs are designed to be temporary and not long term supplementing. The number of follow-up programs your horse requires is entirely up to the horse and symptom profile.
11.
Do you work on horses with owner's not present?
All initial assessments must be done with the owner present. This not only ensures safety on my behalf, but also gives the owner insight as to what these sessions looks like, how their horse's respond to the treatment and quite often we discuss several important topics that will benefit the owner/horse relationship. Once the first appointment has been completed, depending on the horse, I do allow working on horse's while the owner is not present. The horse must be in an easy to catch pen and have a halter at the gate prior to the session. The preparation is still the same for horse's when their owner isn't there. They need to be relatively clean and MUST be dry.
12.
What is Equipro connect?
January 2024, there is a business software change. Equipro Connect will be the administrative hub for Heart In Hand Equine Specialty . Equipro Connect will digitally track and file all invoices, client information, session reports and online booking features for not only myself, but for your convenience as well. If you'd like, you can create a completely free owner portal which will allow you to edit your contact information, and also manage your horse's information as well as all the session report history, invoice history, and quick online booking benefits. Equipro also will be the main software for all forms. These forms include updated waiver forms for 2024 that all new and existing clients are required to read and sign, client profile information, horse(s) profile information and session intake forms. These forms will be automatically e-mailed to all clients (including existing clients who are getting transferred) and will need to be filled in as thoroughly as possible. I will be adding to the horse information during the transition. Please make sure to include ALL contact information is up to date. This can be edited later if you choose to create an owner portal. This will be eliminating the DocuSign program that has been used previously for all electronic signing of forms.
13.
Invoicing
As of January 2024 all my invoicing is done electronically through EquiPro Connect which will require an active email from each client. As of April 2023, all invoices will include GST. As of January 2024, all invoices need to be paid within 15 days of the time the service was done. Any invoices that are overdue are subject to a 10% late payment fee for every additional week the invoice is left unpaid. An email is sent out with the initial invoice and then another email will be sent out once payment has been received and processed. Invoices include: Heart In Hand Equine Specialty's information, client information, date of invoicing and payment due date, date services were completed service provided, the horse it was performed for, additional fees, GST and invoice total. CLICK HERE for example of invoice.
15.
Equipro Connect Owner Portal
The owner portal is free and incredibly easy to use. Creating an owner portal allows you to keep you contact information up to date, efficiently use the online booking platform, as well as keep your horse(s) information all up to date. The owner portal also has all of your invoicing and session report histories available to you at the click of a button. I strongly recommend my clients commit some time to setting up their owner portal for the ultimate customized experience with Heart In Hand Equine Specialty. However, the owner portal is not mandatory for all my clients to set up. For more information: CLICK HERE
16.
Equipro Connect Online Booking
As of January 2024, you now have the option to book appointments online. The online booking platform will give you the opportunity to share with me the dates that work best for you as well as the services you'd like to done. From here, I will be able to coordinate my route and schedule to get you and your horse booked in much more quickly and efficiently. The online booking platform is not the only way to book an appointment. You can also reach out to me via text, phone call, email, or any of my direct messaging platforms on social media. CLICK HERE to access the Heart In Hand Equine Specialty platform.
17.
Payment Plans
Do not let the service prices determine if you and your horse get to begin the healing journey. I am very open to payment plans to ensure your horse is getting the care needed, while supporting your current financial place. Inflation is at an all time high, and only expected to increase and I can promise you that I feel the same impact! Payment plans will be completely tailored and customized to you and your horse's needs. I've been in a position where finances held back a healing journey, and supportive business owner's were able to help me in my times of need. I am now here to help you in when you and your horse are in a time of need.
18.
Cancellation Policy
Life happens and sometimes all we can do is reschedule or cancel an appointment. While there are definitely some exceptions to the policy, below are the general cancellation guidelines: ​
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Cancellation within 48 hours of scheduled appointment is subject to 50% service charge and possible fuel charge for all out of town clients.
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No-Show's are subject to full charge.
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Just as life throws curve balls with you, I sometimes need to cancel our appointment. If I cancel our appointment, I will offer you two of my earliest openings for the new appointment time. If neither of these times work with your schedule, we will choose a date that is compatiable with both of our schedules.
19.
Equine Bodywork Reports
As of January 2024, equine bodywork session reports will be included with the bodywork service. In pervious years, letter head reports were not done, however with the use of the Equipro Connect program, I am able to easily complete thorough bodywork reports for you and your horse. These reports will include findings of the skeletal system, musculature system and soft tissue. Reports will also include assessment details as well as the post session comments and recommendations. Reports will be sent out 5-7 days following the appointment via email. I imagine it will take some time to sort out the details, but I am confident that we have a good, easy to understand foundation of reports for horse owners. CLICK HERE to preview a session report example.
20.
Nutritional Consult Reports
The therapeutic nutritional program is delivered to you via a PDF file that thoroughly includes the horses history, symptom profile, suggested feeds, suggested supplements, and relevant additional information. The invoice for the nutritional consult must be paid in advance before I start the creating the program.
21.
Ground Training Reports
It is the owner's responsibility to take notes during/after the training session. I will not be providing a report following your ground training lesson.
22.
Tack Assessment Reports
It is recommended that at the time of your saddle assessment you have a pen and paper available. We will be covering a lot of information through the tack assessment/saddle assessment. Information such as locating the weight bearing area of your horse, what to look for in potential saddles, or saddles you already have, how to utilize saddle blankets and saddle rigging. The tack assessment will also include three custom moulds of your horse's back dated appropriately to help you in visually seeing how the saddle works or does not work for your horse's back. On record, I will have notes on your file with the date and which molds the horse used that assessment.